It 's only a potion. . .

My adoptive son with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome yesterday made a "cocktail" to drink. he found 3 bottle of medicine that I mistakenly (stupidly) left out in my bedroom after treating Harrison's bout with Scarlet Fever. He took the bottle of liquid Tylenol, liquid Ibuprofen, and generic Psuedophed and dumped them into a bottle of water. There was evidence of the concoction all the way down the hall as he was apparently pouring it as he walked to the bathroom. Ususally I lock all the medicine up, however, we have been locking all the doors upstairs so I felt comfortable leaving it out in my room. Poor decision as he found the key and unlocked all the upstairs doors. Impulsivity at his finest then helped him "decide" to make a cocktail. When I found the sticky bottle I asked what had been in it. After repeating the questions 5 times I finally got a response. . . "I made a potion, It's only a potion." No more Harry Potter movies . . . LOL

Not only did I loose about $15.00 worth of medicine, but I have no idea how much he drank. Apparently enough because he didn't sleep at all Sunday night and Monday at school he was quite difficult. Pseudophed and FAS . . . NOT a good combo.

Sometime if I don't laugh, I will simply cry!

I'll never forget that sound . . .

Sunday we received a phone call from our wonderful neighbors that our dogs had gotten out of the fence. Our neighbor got Max (our little terrier mix) and I started to call for Cayenne. I was coming off the front porch when I heard . . . squeal . . .thunk thunk thunk . . . and then yelping. By the time I got to the street, Cayenne was running out from under a car. When I picked her up, she seemed ok . .. at this time she was still in shock. When I laid her on the porch, you could see a tire mark across the back side of her abdomen. Apparently she had been rolled completely over. I was HYSTERICAL. I was screaming and crying. Not very mom-like behavior.

My neighbor took us to the Emergency Animal Hospital. She came home with a probable fracture in her driver side front leg (LOL), several broken ribs, and very traumatized psyche. We choose to take her home with pain medication and antibiotics and let her rest there. About 12 hours later I was back at the hospital, I thought we were going to loose her. We had to admit her with fluid in her lungs. She was struggling the breathe and was shaking uncontrollably. Once again I was a mess.

When I picked her up Monday morning to transfer her to our vet's office, she was amazing. She actually walked in to the exam room and began jumping up on me. It is amazing how resilient animals can be after a night of pain meds and oxygen. I took her to my vet and they removed her IV line and sent her home to rest.

This morning she is doing well! She is using her front leg and acting completely normal. I am so glad she is okay. She is our hurricane Katrina dog, the best dog ever and I would've missed her terribly.

Mothers . . . .

Oh my. . . what a week. Robert returned from Texas on Monday. You can read all about his trip on his blog. I won't take the time or his thunder. . .

I've talked before about my mom being my boss. This next week we have our annual Week of the Young Child celebration at our daycare. It is a huge week with a different family event each day. On Friday, we have a huge Spring Program. The kids have been working on songs to perform as well as artwork and the like. It is a BIG undertaking with 269 kids. We have about 650 people come for the program on Friday.

You'd think after doing this for so many years, you could relax and enjoy it. Not my mother, she micro-manages everything. Actually she had been doing really well. She was pretty mellow and had been enjoyable to be around. Then last night IT hit . . . the panic. You see, I definitely get my OCD from somewhere. I thought she was going to explode. Everything is under control, everything has been going smoothly. That's the problem, she thought it was too smooth. In her mind it couldn't be the fact that she has compotent staff that things are under control, it must be that she's forgotten something really important.

To add insult to her injury, Robert got a callyesterday about his uncle. Uncle Junior has been struggling with cancer for about 2 years now. He was put in the hospital last week to have a feeding tube put in, and he isn't doing well. There's not much else the doctors can do. He isn't expected to live through the weekend. I know that if Junior dies next week I will not be able to go to Kentucky for the funeral due to Week of the Young Child. It is a BIG part of my job. Yesterday I told my mom about Junior. She heard "possible funeral" and turned me off. She thought I would be leaving and not be here sometime next week. So, I guess I was part of the freak out. Today when she grumpily called me in her office to give me list as long as my arm to do for the celebration she said "Since you're prabably not going to be here, I'm gonna have to do even more." I had to set her straight, I said, "Had you listened to me yesterday you wouldn't be so freaked out."

Working with your mom is *super* . . . she says rollign her eyes. . .

I'm not cut out for this . . .

You know how they say "You don't know what you've got until it's gone"? Well . . . I knew my husband did a lot for me and the kids, he is their primary caregiver and I knew I relied on him for a ton of help with the kids when we were together, but WOW! He's been gone for 4 days now and I'm ready to pull out my hair. I don't think I am cut out to be a single mom. His return on Tuesday couldn't come soon enough.

You see, Dustin is very compartmental when it comes to obediance. When he is alone with dad he does great. He is respectful and pretty obediant. They rarely have difficulty. When he is with me and Robert he only listens to me. He is rude and horribly disrespectful to Robert. When he is alone with me, he is awful. Today was BAD! I haven't seen that very defiant look in his eyes for a LONG time. I thought I would lose my mind. An extra dose of halodal did help to take the edge off his defiance finally. We got to enjoy the outdoors a little this afternoon without many problems. Thankfully we have understanding and caring neighbors whose children play quite well with Dustin.

When we went inside for baths, I noticed Harrison, my 3 year old, had a really red rash in his groin area. He has been very grumpy and whiny since daddy has been in Texas and I thought he was just missing daddy. He got in the bath and he immediately broke out in a red sand-papery rash from the top of his head to his knees. After a call to the pediatrician we were off to the ER. The nighbors watched McCartney, the 2 year old, and we headed across town with Dustin in tow.

We are home. All the kids are asleep. Harrison has a serious case of Scarletina ( caused by a strep virus) . Robert owes me BIG TIME. I think a trip to the day spa may be in order, that is of course after I get over the case of Strep that I will certainly get from Harrison.

IEP time again . . .

Today we had an IEP meeting for Dustin. For all you non-special education parents, an IEP is an Individualized Education Plan that outlines Dustin's goals and objectives for the next schoolyear. It also encompasses what he is capable of and what his disablilites are at school. They have been typically traumatic things for us as Dustin's behavior has always been a sticking subject for the school system. Dustin is in a moderately handicapped program. This is due to his low IQ and how far behind he is in school as well as his behavior. He reads at a pre-kindergarten level. He is capable of doing addition and subtraction, telling time, discriminating money, making change and is very good at spelling. Next year he goes to middle school. Middle School! Argh! That scares the bahooties out of me! (that's one of my favorite words . . . bahooties)

However, today, I had a wonderful IEP meeting. For the first time we didn't have 8 billion people there. It was just me and the teacher. (Robert was at another appointment with the "littles") She was quite kind and happy about Dustin's progress. His behavior has much improved and he is making steady progress in dealing with peer relations, they will never be perfect, but he is learning how to interact better with MANY reminders and MUCH praise. (and a good comibination of drugs) It is nice to finally stop hearing about his whining since I have continually reminded his teacher that it will NOT get any better with nagging, we have to ignore and deal with it.

It is nice to have some positive comments after such a difficult winter. Sometimes with special needs children, especially those with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome, you get so down after hearing negatives all the time. It is so refreshing to have those times when people are actually positive about your child's progress. I am trying to hold on to those times and remember them during the hard times. I have learned in my 5 years with Dustin that I cannot always be so negative, I have to take the bad times and laugh when I get frustrated. It is the only way not to go crazy. I also have to remember that his behavior is not a reflection on my parenting skills, he is damaged! (that may sound harsh, but it is a reality) I can only be supportive and loving. He is better off having a loving home and stable environment. Hopefully that will get us all through. Right now, I'm going to go home and hug my boy!

Spring has sprung . . .

I love spring. I hate being too hot and sweaty so spring is definately for me. I love being in my backyard. We don't have the greatest backyard in the world, but we enjoy it. You see, we own a duplex. Our renters are AWESOME people and also have 3 kids. Between the 6 kids, 3 dogs and the four of us, we have a blast in the yard. Our yard gets used well. Tonight I am putting up our new gazebo. I hope this weather holds out for the weekend, I'm looking orward to enjoying the outdoors!

Stormy . . .

Coming home from the funeral we ran into a horrible storm. Thank goodness it was short lived. It gave me the creeps though, it looked like it had some rotation. When we got home we found out it had indeed spawned 4 tornadoes. I took this cool picture just at dusk.

Family . . .

This week we learned that Robert's Aunt Ann died. She struggled with cancer for several years. Robert moved in with his Mammie (grandmother) and Papa when he was 8. Ann was grown but still lived at home for a short time. We had to travel to the funeral with the kids since my mom and step-dad are still in Florida. What fun! (she says sarcastically) Actually the kids were pretty good, the funeral home ad a fabulous play room with a TV. The family had tons of food, so that kept Dustin busy. We got to see Robert's dad and sister. We also visited Mammie pictured above with Harrison at the nursing home. Mammie suffers from Alzheimers so she wasn't able to attend the funeral. She did have moments of calrity where she told us Ann had died. Oddly enough Ann had been at the same hursing home for 2 weeks prior to her death as Mammie. She passed away there as Mammie slept in another wing. Robert has thought Mammie would die "soon" for about 15 years. She seems to be outliving everyone. What a strong woman. We hope to bring her to Fort Wayne since Ann is no longer in Greenfield.